FreeBSD Continues Work On Ridding Its Base Of GPL-Licensed Software

[bug77]

And people are free to judge their efforts as useless.

Yes. Because building an OS that goes into everything from servers to routers is totally the same as standing on lines and criticizing.

[Shiba]

Yes. Because building an OS that goes into everything from servers to routers is totally the same as standing on lines and criticizing.

Something it managed to do GPL or not. So again, useless effort.

[kpedersen]

obvious reasons a logistical nightmare to have manually sync between all said devices.

Yeah I do understand some of these apparent benefits for average users but I am also fairly certain that people don't need to sync things nearly as much as they have been told they do. I am also fairly sure when tech trends loop back around, the cloud recedes again and we all go back to having distributed devices, people will look back on this period and laugh and the pointlessness of syncing things like (erm...) VSCode or Vim plugins through an online-only server.

[f0rmat]

Yeah I do understand some of these apparent benefits for average users but I am also fairly certain that people don't need to sync things nearly as much as they have been told they do. I am also fairly sure when tech trends loop back around, the cloud recedes again and we all go back to having distributed devices, people will look back on this period and laugh and the pointlessness of syncing things like (erm...) VSCode or Vim plugins through an online-only server.

I believe that you are correct. Most people that I know that do not work on a computer (either for work or as an enthusiast) are mostly concerned about synchronizing their youtube and social media across their devices. Unfortunately for them, when their device dies, they lose their documents and their pictures. I do not do cloud storage - I keep my stuff with me. Multiple backups on my own systems and external hard drives. I trust free cloud services about as much as I trust Trump's etiquette or Biden's memory. Actually I may trust Google's privacy more than either of those - but I doubt it.

[WorBlux]

A lot of people tend to forget how viral the GPL can be and how GPL code can be risky to use in commercial products. If one dumbass junior dev doesn't track a change to a make file then the entire company risks a GPL violation for not documenting them changing a 1 to a 2.

This change also matters in regards to compiling the base system and how linking is done. If the GPL is out of the loop you don't have to worry about linking and license violations during compilation.

Like anyone ever been dragged to court over a small mistake? 999 times out of a thousand you'd just receive an email asking why it doesn't match up, especially if you are substantially in compliance.

And not the GPL doesn't contain any special linking rules. While certain software packages contain exemptions that are less stringent than the GPL itself, or you get into LGPL things get more complicated.

And BSD contains no patent license, which can and will bite you in the ass harder than a group that has historically been interested in compliance.

Also in light of Oracle V. Google, an MIT/BSD re-implementation of a GPL interface isn't necessarily safe from being considered a derivative work anyways.

[Hi-Angel]

lol, can't wait to see FreeBSD getting rid of all their graphics drivers, because those are actually Linux drivers

[kpedersen]

Unfortunately for them, when their device dies, they lose their documents and their pictures..

This is particularly annoying because data stored on removable media was solved earlier than the 80's. This regression is purely due to companies lobotomising their devices and software to tie the users further to their servers (I won't ramble on about it because I am sure everyone on technical forums have heard these concerns before...)

So their reason to "sync" is an artificial requirement set up by their non-ethical vendor. Unlike what a lot of typical consumers believe, it is *not* this new "modern" way of how we use computers today. It is not correct. It is not modern. It is not productive. They are simply being taken for a ride like a bunch of twits (obviously I would never tell that to my boss, my parents and (certainly!!!) not my partner .

[f0rmat]

They are simply being taken for a ride like a bunch of twits (obviously I would never tell that to my boss, my parents and (certainly!!!) not my partner .

You are a wise person.

[gavron]

I think it's REALLY GREAT that they're doing ALL this work. Free and open source sucks and FreeBSD is so awesome. Much better to REFACTOR CODE and SWITCH PACKAGES than FIX BUGS.

No need to fix bugs if you can change the license. Too bad Linux is so broken nobody uses it for servers, laptops, desktops, and bugfixes happen all the time. That's such a waste of time when you can just CHANGE THE LICENSE.

FreeBSD commits 2020: 273 with 500 developers
Linux commits 2020: 887,695 with 1501 developers

E

[vladpetric]

Exactly. BSD is the kernel + the core system where as Linux is just the kernel. That's why shit breaks when the Linux kernel updates.

A lot of people tend to forget how viral the GPL can be and how GPL code can be risky to use in commercial products. If one dumbass junior dev doesn't track a change to a make file then the entire company risks a GPL violation for not documenting them changing a 1 to a 2.

This change also matters in regards to compiling the base system and how linking is done. If the GPL is out of the loop you don't have to worry about linking and license violations during compilation.

What's funny is FreeBSD covers damn near all that I want my desktop to do these days. Even games are starting to work. After doing a bit of reading last night the biggest hurdle I think I'd have seems to be Wine/Proton multiarch.

I've had pfSense freeze on a reboot, when upgrading to an official, newer patch level of the same version, when installed on an approved/recommended hardware. It wasn't really any fancy setup, just regular home firewall running some vpns as well.

Things can break badly with FreeBSD too ...